Skills for Thrills

For the uninitiated, when it comes to flat-out, calculated riding, there’s no-one as impressive as Barel. Every nut, bolt and washer on his bikes have been hand-selected and mused over, every tiny riding input fed through a nervous system finely tuned to eking speed out of the trail. In other words, there’s a lot that he can help you out with when it comes to riding.

MBUK tech ed Rob Weaver was out in Nice with Fabien for the latter stages of filming and was blown away, “Riding with Fabien really opens your eyes as to what can be done on a mountain bike,” he said, “His calculated approach to going fast and his understanding of riding technique is quite astounding. His ability to break down techniques and explain exactly what’s happening or what needs to happen is a valuable tool which will help bring your skills on no matter what sort of riding you’re into."

There’s over an hour's worth of riding wisdom crammed in which will take you through the very basics of set-up, equipment and riding right up to full-on trail-shredding techniques that’ll have your mates jaws hanging open and trail centre regulars shouting “Oi! No professionals!”